​Blog

On the afternoon of November 24th, Tsinghua-SAIS visited Goodark Electronics Co., Ltd. Goodark is an electronic component producer. Founded in 1991 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2006, the predecessor to Goodark originally started out as a printing and package welding business. But a 1991 cooperation agreement with a Taiwanese funded enterprise brought with it manufacturing technologies that allowed Goodark to be one of the first joint-operated ventures in China at the time, and one of the earliest private electronic component manufacturers in China.

A tour of the Goodark production lines included everything from diode and transistor assembly lines that rely on skilled labor and which haven’t changed significantly in nearly 20 years, to state of the art high-tech clean rooms where technicians operated the highly automated machinery that is involved in cutting silicon wafers into component dies and then mounting them into chip sockets, testing for quality and for errors the entire time. Some of the silicon wafers are even produced at an in house foundry, so the entire production line from raw input to mounted chip can be completed within Goodark facilities for select projects. ​Goodark’s management highlighted the extraordinary lengths that the company has gone to to provide for its employees. The employee turnover rate at Goodark is only 3%, compared to industry averages between 20% and 30%. Benefits include generous maternity leave, childcare, company team building and learning opportunities, and an emphasis on mutual respect based on Confucian traditions. The inextricable link between the culture of employee happiness and the success of the company was highlighted in facilities: private rooms for religious worship, the company’s self-cultivated vegetable fields (which helped supply the company’s all vegan cafeteria), and classrooms.​Near the end of the visit, a roadmap for Goodark’s continued growth and future highlighted how the company has continued to grow and evolve over nearly 30 years, as well as the company’s future potential.